A two-day summit to unveil what China is portraying as the infrastructure project of the century concluded on May 15. The $1 trillion initiative is designed to vastly expand free trade in Africa, Asia and Europe. Realization of the plan will depend in part on the effectiveness of a newly minted development mechanism, known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

It’s not often that the leaders of democracies like Switzerland and Spain gather with the heads of repressive regimes like North Korea and Uzbekistan, but it seems no one wants to miss China’s coming-out party for its “One Belt, One Road” initiative.

From a vantage point upon a hill, the recovery workers in the southern Kyrgyzstan settlement of Ayuu looked like burrowing ants. Beneath them lay the bodies of 24 people — some only toddlers — buried by a landslide big enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool 100 times over.

There is work under way to lay down new water pipes near the family home of Abror and Akram Azimov in Jalal-Abad, in southern Kyrgyzstan. A deep trench dug along the length of the street has turned the web of lanes in this largely ethnic Uzbek neighborhood into an obstacle course.

The United States has stepped up its trainings of elite military units in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan over the last two years, U.S. government records show. At the same time, the U.S. has suspended training of units from Kyrgyzstan, previously one of the biggest recipients of such aid.

Before the security services in Kyrgyzstan came for Omurbek Tekebayev, there were many other opposition politicians being thrown in jail.

Last month’s arrest of the Ata-Meken party leader sent shockwaves through the country as an escalating confrontation between short-tempered President Almazbek Atambayev and his critics began assuming a more sinister tone.